


Sweet Peas and Sentimentality

by mismatched_ideas



Series: Starting Gun, Photo Finish [12]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Birthdays, Cuddling, Established Relationship, Flowers, Fluff, M/M, Pet Names, Self-Doubt, archer!Seung-gil, olympian AU, side viktuuri, tennis player!Phichit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 02:53:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13137585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mismatched_ideas/pseuds/mismatched_ideas
Summary: “I want to get him flowers.”“Oh, that’s so sweet!” She smiled widely, dispelling some of Seung-gil's fears in a way that usually only Phichit's smile did. “What did you have in mind?”“Umm…” Seung-gil wished he had a real answer. “Flowers?”





	Sweet Peas and Sentimentality

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I'm back! I'm at a Starbucks in Japan, posting this while chrome tries to drive me crazy with it's whole, barely working thing. I've got a little more to say, but I'll save that for the end. 
> 
> By the way, this takes place before the late night thoughts and boyfriend does my makeup fics and it's after the last fic where Phichit meets the Lee's. I forget the exact year I put this in but, well, it's Phichit's brithday haha. (fuck, actually it might take place before the phichit meeting the Lee's fic... I forget now... damn it I hate everything all my notes are at home. Sorry... ;__; I'll figure it out later)

He squinted at the display as if that would help him understand how to pick out flowers. His hair kept falling into his eyes and his mind wandered to how he needed to get a haircut. 

Maybe he could go tomorrow and just get it done, instead of continuing to put it off. After all, he needed to be ready for practice and he really didn’t want Sara forcing him to use one of her headbands again. Then again, Phichit had said he liked how it looked so maybe he didn’t mind that much…

Phichit. Right. He was getting distracted. 

Flowers.

“Hello, do you need help?” Seung-gil looked up quickly at a woman wearing a pretty green apron speckled with white flowers. She had her hair held up in a bun and looked friendly enough. “Are you looking for something special?”

“It’s my boyfriend’s birthday.” He answered quietly, always a little worried about how people would react. He liked the safety he felt in New York City but that didn’t erase the memory of bad experiences whether they be insults in Middle School and worse in High School. 

He remembered how some of his University 'friends’ had stopped talking to him when he introduced them to Phichit despite the fact that he was far from the people who insulted him as a child.

He could still see the article titles from when he and Phichit first started dating. He could hear the rude commentary from the first match he attended after their announcement.

He knew that even if New York City was relatively safe, nowhere was truly safe.

“I want to get him flowers.” 

“Oh, that’s so sweet!” She smiled widely, dispelling some of Seung-gil's fears in a way that usually only Phichit's smile did. “What did you have in mind?”

“Umm…” Seung-gil wished he had a real answer. “Flowers?”

She blinked for a moment before laughing, the sound light and airy.

“Okay, let me show you some options.” She beckoned for Seung-gil follow her. “I’m Azalea.” 

“Really?” That did explain her name tag, which had confused Seung-gil. He just thought the florist had decided to be particularly quirky.

“It’s a family business.” She shrugged, the smile never leaving her face. “So you can imagine that my parents like flowers.” 

“I guess so.” He paused uncertainly as she started to pull books off of a shelf in search of something. “I’m Seung-gil.”

“Nice to meet you, Seung-gil.” She made a noise, turning to show Seung-gil a picture in a wedding magazine. “What about this? Sweet peas, calla lilies, and lily of the valley. Sweet pea is one of the flowers for April. Or is his birthday in May?”

“No, it’s April.” Seung-gil looked closely at the bouquet, wondering if it was okay to get Phichit a bouquet based on something in a wedding magazine. They weren’t even close to being married. “Can you do this today?”

“Sure, it should be easy enough. We have all these flowers.” She put the magazine down on a table and gave Seung-gil a thumbs up. “Give me a few hours and I’ll see what I can do today.”

Seung-gil did his best to smile at the woman, hoping the attempt went well. He couldn’t tell since her smile never faltered but he guessed that meant that, at the very least, it hadn’t been terrifying. He was still bad at smiling on purpose. 

“Thank you.”

\---

His phone rang a few times as he waited outside a small bakery he knew Phichit liked to buy cupcakes from. He had a vague idea about what desserts Phichit liked but he was worried that his taste in cake was different than his taste in cupcakes. And what if he wanted something different for his birthday?

Seung-gil had considered trying to call one of Phichit’s sisters, but threw out that idea because he knew he’d have to listen to them coo over how cute they thought he and Phichit were. He really was too stressed to have to deal with that, even if he liked Phichit’s sisters plenty. He’d only met Seua face to face but he'd met them all over Skype. Lek was a relatively calm person so he thought he could call her. And for as much as Seua liked to tease Phichit, she was still very much an adult. But then there was Song. He liked her quite a bit but it was still true that she liked to tease him and Phichit more than he thought he could handle right now. And there was always a chance Song was with Seua or Lek, so he wasn’t going to chance calling any of them.

He really did like Song. 

The thing was, she could be a little too much for him sometimes. To be honest, they could all be a little much. They all had the energy of Phichit but, unlike with Phichit, Seung-gil knew almost nothing about them. Also, unlike Phichit, his mind wasn't constantly warped by how attractive he found them. That was to say, he wasn't attracted to them at all. And that was also to say he was very attracted to Phichit. 

“Hello, Yuuri Katsuki speaking.” 

“Umm… hello, this is Seung-gil.”

“Seung-gil!” Yuuri sounded more than a little surprised and Seung-gil couldn't really blame him. The only reason Seung-gil even had Yuuri's phone number was in case something happened to Phichit and Seung-gil couldn't contact Phichit's sisters. “Is something wrong?”

“No.” There was a long pause and Phichit realized that Yuuri was waiting for him to elaborate. Or at least waiting for him to say anything. “So, umm… how are you?”

“I'm good.” Seung-gil thought he could hear Yuuri supressing a chuckle. It made sense, he knew very well that his attempts at small talk rarely worked. “I'm finally starting to feel settled. How are you?”

“I'm fine…” What else did people ask about before they got to the point? “And how is Viktor?”

“He's good. He's new to this whole coaching thing but he seems happier doing it.”

“That's good to hear.” It wasn't exactly a secret — at least among athletes — that the world famous gymnist, Viktor Nikiforov, had been listless and unhappy for at least the last two or three years. Still, Seung-gil wasn't sure retiring to become a near stranger's coach was the best solution. “Tell him Phichit and I said hello.”

“I'm sure he'll want to call you back just to say hello,” Yuuri laughed. “It's not everyday you call and say hello.”

“We hardly know each other.” 

That was true about Yuuri and doubly so about Viktor. Really, Seung-gil only knew Viktor as an athlete and as the guy Yuuri had been in love with. Then the guy Yuuri was fucking. Then, finally, the guy Yuuri was dating and moving to Russia for. 

To be fair, it seemed like that wasn't so different from how Yuuri knew Seung-gil.

“Still, you are dating one of my best friends.” Yuuri’s voice softened. “You know you can call anytime, right?”

“Well, umm…” Seung-gil cleared his throat, unsure how to respond. “I actually need your advice.”

“Oh, really, on what?” Yuuri asked, letting Seung-gil move awkwardly past Yuuri’s openness.

“I was going to get a cake for Phichit's birthday and I know what kind of cupcake he likes but I wasn't sure if I should get that kind of cake too.”

“Well, I don't know much about his cupcake buying habits but I do know that he loves strawberry shortcake. Or really any cake with strawberries. He doesn't mention it much because sometimes he forgets that strawberries are actually pretty cheap in America and he's used to them being only for very special occasions. But he really loves them.”

“He's never mentioned liking strawberries…” 

“Like I said, he doesn't say it much. I didn't know until our last year rooming together.”

“Okay…” Seung-gil still couldn't help but feel sad. “Well, thank you. I should really finish getting ready.”

“Seung-gil, he'll love it no matter what, trust me.”

“Yep,” he responded because he knew he shouldn't try to argue with Yuuri even if he disagreed. Phichit always said that for as uncertain as Yuuri was in himself, he was doubly as sure in his friends. And even if Seung-gil want sure they were really friends, he knew Yuuri was Phichit's friends. “Thanks again.”

“Anytime, really.” 

Yuuri sounded so earnest that Seung-gil nearly broke and asked Yuuri the questions that always ate silently at the back of Seung-gil's mind. He didn't, though, and Yuuri ended the call, leaving Seung-gil to try and ignore the questions about him and Phichit while he picked out the perfect birthday cake.

\---

Phichit hated to say that he'd forgotten it was his birthday until he checked his phone after practice and found message after message wishing him a happy birthday. It was odd, he'd never forgotten his birthday before but with the move and the recently harder practice — his new coach was great but she also wouldn't settle for anything less than gold — he didn't even realize what day it was. Lately, his days had been labeled in his mind only by the day of the week. 

Seung-gil had a day off of practice today so he'd been asleep when Phichit left for a photoshoot his coach had insisted on. When he'd come home for lunch, Seung-gil was strangely gone. Phichit had found a cryptic note about how he had to run errands and when he reached for his phone, intending to ask Seung-gil where he was, Phichit found his phone was completely dead, probably because he'd forgotten to charge it the night before. Then he's accidentally fallen asleep, only to wake up with barely any time to get ready and get to practice.

So, he hadn't checked his phone until finishing practice. His coach didn't know it was his birthday, he'd never gotten around to telling her, so it wasn't until then that he realized it was, in fact, his birthday.

But in all those messages, Phichit found none from Seung-gil, a fact that made him sad despite his best efforts to the contrary. It wasn't like Phichit could judge someone for forgetting his birthday when he'd forgotten it himself. 

It still made him a little sad.

But he was determined not to make a big deal out of it. Seung-gil had been busy lately with practice and school so Phichit understood how it could have slipped his mind. Phichit didn't want to make Seung-gil feel bad. 

Phichit didn't want to scare Seung-gil away. 

But he was also worried that if he said nothing and Seung-gil found out, he'd feel doubly bad about forgetting. He could already see Seung-gil overthinking Phichit's choice and making it into something it wasn't.

Phichit didn't want Seung-gil to think he didn't trust him.

Phichit toed his shoes off at the front door, knowing his coach would hate to see him do that. She would lecture him for an hour about how bad that was for his shoes. That said, she's probably have an even longer lecture for him about wearing his tennis shoes on the walk home. He'd just been so tired and hadn't wanted to change. He just wanted to stand under the shower for too long then go to bed. If Seung-gil found out it had been Phichit's birthday, he figured he could truthfully say he forgot and that he'd been so tired it never crossed his mind. It wouldn't make Seung-gil feel better about forgetting, but it would probably be the best option. 

As he stepped farther into their small apartment, Phichit realized the entire place smelled like lemon. Not the harsh fake lemon of cleaning products, but the smell of real lemons being cooked in their kitchen.

“Seung-gil?” Phichit called, walking into the kitchen to find his boyfriend cooking dinner.

Seung-gil was wearing snug black slacks and a snug — well really, it was tight — dark red shirt. Phichit recognised it as the outfit Phichit bought for Seung-gil on their last anniversary.

Over his outfit that anyone could tell he hadn't bought — Seung-gil couldn't exactly be called fashionable, not that Phichit cared — he was wearing the plain black apron he had bought after Phichit proved to have issues not spilling things in the kitchen. 

“Seung-gil?” Phichit tried again, this time catching Seung-gil's attention.

“Happy birthday.” 

Phichit blinked at Seung-gil, his mind slowly coming to terms with the fact that Seung-gil hadn't forgotten anything. He was also trying to dampen the feeling of guilt associated with his assumption because of course Seung-gil remembered. Seung-gil wasn't exactly forgetful, at least not with things like this. 

When Phichit didn't respond, Seung-gil glanced at his pan before closing the small distance between him and Phichit, threading the fingers of his right hand between Phichit's left. He leaned forward and pecked a kiss onto the corner is Phichit's mouth.

“Is something wrong?”

“No,” Phichit gasped, finally finding his words. “I just wasn't expecting this.”

“It's your birthday, of course I'm going to cook you dinner.”

“It's still really nice,” Phichit told him, pulling Seung-gil into a longer kiss. He would have stayed like that forever but the pan Seung-gil had left was starting to make noises and he had to pull away from Phichit to finish dinner. 

“Go sit at the table, I got you some flowers.”

“Sweet peas!” Phichit exclaimed when he saw the flowers. “I love sweet peas.”

“I'm glad.” Seung-gil smiled at the pan in front of him, barley realizing he was doing it. “Apparently they're one of the flowers for April.” 

“Really?” Phichit looked over the bouquet, amazed by the attention to detail. “You have to take me to this florist, they did an amazing job.”

“Her name's Azalea.” Seung-gil said as he plated their dinner.

“You're lying,” Phichit gapped at Seung-gil while he walked over to the table.

“I'm not lying,” he insisted with a smile. “Her name is Azalea.”

“Now I definetly have to meet her,” Phichit laughed, looking at the dinner with interest. “What is it?”

“Nothing fancy,” Seung-gil insisted. “You really liked that lemon chicken with pasta I made once so, I made it again. This time I added spinach too. I hope you like it.”

Phichit didn't respond immedietly, instead taking a few bites of the meal, a big smile spreading across his face.

“I love it.” Phichit insisted. “It's great.”

“I'm… glad.” Seung-gil smiled at his own dinner, taking a few bites while Phichit dug into his, a comfortable silence falling over them.

Phichit liked that they could sit in silence and be comfortable. He was happy he found someone who didn't make him feel like he had to fill the silence constantly. If Phichit wanted to talk through every silence, he was sure Seung-gil would indulge him. If Seung-gil wanted to fill the silence then Phichit would feel the same way, happy to listen to his boyfriend talk forever.

But it was nice not to have to fill the silence. It was nice to finally have someone who quieted the part of Phichit that was afraid of silence. It was nice to have someone who don't make Phichit feel like the silence would give away all of his secrets. And maybe it would give away his secrets but the key with Seung-gil was that Phichit didn't care. He was ready to tell Seung-gil anything the other man wanted to hear. Phichit was ready to love Seung-gil forever.

“Sweet Pea,” Seung-gil looked up like he was uncertain if that was directed at him. “Thank you for being you.”

He thought about how he loved sweet peas and how, he thought, he loved Seung-gil. But he wasn't sure, was never sure, and was even less sure he should say it so, for now he remained silent, hoping Seung-gil understood that when he called him sweet pea he was, really, saying 'I love you.’

\---

It was late at night but Seung-gil and Phichit were both still awake. 

Phichit had his face buried in the front of seung-gil's nightshirt — an old t-shirt with a bunch of small Huskies running across it — because he loved the smell of their detergent mixed with Seung-gil's body odor. Of course he's never said that to Seung-gil, because he was pretty sure that was a strange thing to say. 

Seung-gil's arms were wrapped around Phichit, his chin resting on the top of Phichit's head. He loved the small point of heat on his chest from where Phichit breathed into his shirt. He loved having Phichit close, his body still feeling touch-starved despite the fact that they had been living together for a decent amount of time. Maybe it was left over from a childhood of rejecting physical affection so he didn't have to interact with a family he felt he'd let down. Maybe he was just greedy and wanted as much of Phichit as he could get.

He needed to get as much of Phichit as he could before Phichit left.

“Sweet Pea,” Phichit's voice was muffled by Seung-gil's shirt. “What's wrong?”

“Huh?”

“Your breathing changed,” Phichit leaned back so he could look at Seung-gil. “So what's wrong?”

“That's just scary,” Seung-gil mumbled, wishing he didn't have to voice his worries. They were stupid and irrational, he knew that. He didn't want to say then aloud because they would sounds even stupider in the open air. “But, really, it's nothing.”

“Seung-gil,” Phichit whined, pouting his lips.

“It's stupid.”

“Nothing you think is stupid, even if it isn't true.” Phichit was getting a lot better at understanding Seung-gil's thought process. 

“You never told me that you like strawberries,” Seung-gil mumbled.

Phichit had been in heaven when Seung-gil brought him a large slice of strawberry shortcake. Phichit hadn't even realized he never told Seung-gil about his life of strawberries until Seung-gil explained that he'd called Yuuri.

“I didn't mean anything by it, I swear…” Phichit paused. “I'm just used to strawberries being expensive and–”

“That's what Yuuri told me but… I just thought… why not tell me?” 

Seung-gil felt bad, like he was attacking Phichit on his birthday, but he needed to try and say what he'd been thinking since Yuuri told him about Phichit's love of strawberries.

“I'm not sure what you mean.”

“Just because something's expensive, doesn't mean you shouldn't tell me about it.”

“I don't want you to waste money on me.”

Phichit was honestly surprised to hear the words come out of his mouth, never realizing they even existed in his mind. With Yuuri, his liking strawberries really hadn't come up before Phichit told him. With Seung-gil, there was something else stopping him. Something that was afraid of serious relationships not because he didn't want one but more because he did and because he was afraid that the more invested he got, the ‘clingier’ he would become.

“Phichit,” Seung-gil looked at Phichit, his face serious, a hint of concern in his eyes. “Spending money on you isn't a waste.”

“I know… I just… I don't know.”

“Phichit, trust me to make choices of my own. If I want to spend money on you, I will, just like you insist on spending money on me.”

“It's not about trust,” Phichit explained, leaning his face back into Seung-gil's chest. “Sometimes I don't know why I do things. I think I hold back because I'm afraid I'm too much.”

Seung-gil wrapped his arms back around Phichit, holding him tight as he murmured into Phichit's hair.

“You'll never be too much, _Wang-ja-nim_.”

Seung-gil kissed the top of Phichit's head, smiling into his hair. Seung-gil thought they had a long way to go as a couple but that maybe, they'd actually work out. So, the next day, when Viktor actually did call back, Seung-gil was able to confidently say that they were doing great.

“Thanks,” Phichit responded. “For today… for everything.”

“Happy birthday, Phichit.” Seung-gil smiled into Phichit's hair, closing his eyes so he could concentrate on Phichit's breathing and the smell of Phichit's shampoo filling his nose. “And thank you too.”

Phichit didn't respond, he didn't have to. Instead, they both fell into another comfortable silence that would eventually turn into sleep, just happy to be able to hold each other close. Just happy to be together.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to softbank today to get wifi for my apartment so soon I should be able to start posting more! I've got a space AU in the works that I love and I think I might be able to start posting soon. I was writing for nanowrimo and like it's already 2 damn long. It'll probably end up being over 100K words long and like that is 300% the longest thing I've ever written.
> 
> And other than that, I'm still working on my wss AU and after months should be able to post a new chapter soon. 
> 
> Umm... I hope to finish the WYBMS fic I'm working on so that I can finish up that series more or less. I have I think two fics for sure in WYBMS then I'll be more or less done with it and ready to move on to a series that comes after WYBMS that I think will be called "My Future is Your Present" but I'm not sure yet. The first fic is called Bloom and is about our very own Andrew Katsuki. That said, I might have a fic about Avery that I'm putting before that, in which case.... well this series won't come out as soon as planned since that fic isn't written....
> 
> Well, that's all for now! I have a few other fics in the works but none of them are close enough to being done for me to talk about them! 
> 
> Thank you for reading and sorry about how silent I've been!


End file.
